More than an ipod

Friday, July 18th, 2008. My ipod passed away.

It was a good ipod, nothing special, just a 2 gig 1st generation black ipod nano with a nice black leather case with a red racing stripe. It got the job done. I bought it second hand. The previous owner hadn't taken good care of it by adding such music as Nickleback. I rescued the ipod in early October of 2006, we bonded right away. It seemed to be alive. It had all of the same interests in music as I had. We got through some rough patches and alot of adventures, we traveled across the country together. Whenever i had it on shuffle, it always knew just what songs to play. My ipod's battery had never died on me as long as i had it. Today, as i was carelessly putting on a wash of my clothes I forgot to empty the pockets and my ipod was left to die. It's weird... I feel like i'm loosing a friend, the one friend who was always with me, no matter where i went. Its going to be weird not having that object tucked away in my pocket now.

We've had a good run you and I. I hope your in a better place.

rip,

-Brendan

"This Wheels' On Fire" Levon Helm and the story of The Band.

This Wheel's On Fire is truly the perfect "Untold Story" of the Band. The Band's story was never well documented besides... The Last waltz (bullshit). This book really brings you close to Rick, Levon, Garth, Manuel, Dylan, The Hawk, and many friends, hell... even Robbie. All of the stories and experiences told by none other than a true American Hero Levon Helm. You will not find a more in depth piece of literature about any band especially one as great as THE BAND. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, but more than that, it will take you back to when music was MUSIC.

-Brendan

A Bit of a Rant

You know whats been getting on my nerves lately? Disney but more specifically Hanna Montana/Jonas Brothers/High School musical. These seemingly harmless kids shows are whats killing music. I know it's cool now to act like you enjoy these things even if your a teenager (oh har har I like kids shows and I'm not a kid! Real original guys.) but can't you see that it's all about the money? These people are only puppets in Disney's money making scheme. Now some of you are probably arguing this saying "these people are musicians weather you like them or not" well guess what I might believe that if there wasn't so much god damn merchandise out with there face plastered on it or if they wrote the music they release. There are people out there who say "yeah but they're still good singers....Who cares? Bob Dylan couldn't sing and he wrote the best songs of the 20th century that are still being covered by countless artists today.

So to rap things up it's not about how good you look or how well you can sing or how much money you're making it's about the music.

-Grant

Terminal Romance revue

Matt Mays & El Torpedo's second album "Terminal Romance" was released on July 8th and I have to say "Bravo" *claps, claps* Matt Mays has found a way to mix the eastcoast-rock methods of their first CD which was self titled with the electric synth style of Matt's second solo album "When the Angels Make Contact". Do not be fooled by the cheesey Album Cover. I will now go through track by track and give you some details:





1.Building a Boat - Building a Boat is a fast paced catchy rock song with a Catchy sing-along chorus.

2.Digital Eyes - Digital Eyes is a slower song with a "Digital" aspect to it, great lyrics with another catchy pre-chorus

3.Tall Trees- Tall Trees is the albums first single, its sort of a "heavier" song with a catchy guitar riff.

4.Rock Ranger Record- Rock Ranger Record is an up-beat fast rock song. It is a little short at only 2.01 minutes but is one of the most up-beat songs on the record.

5.Terminal Romance- Terminal Romance, the title of the album is a slow song played on piano. It is the longest on the album at 7.40 minutes, but don't get me wrong, you will not be bored and it is very well written. The drums and guitar don't come in until 4 minutes in where the tempo of the song changes and eventually falls into a heavy ballad of the line "She sang Rock n' Roll with the Devil" very good song.

6.Shining Eyes- Shining Eyes is a great light rock song with a brief piano & synthesizer intro. I have noticed that on this album Matt Mays changes his voice a bit from his other albums, it is a more mature deep voice but only on some words, you can notice it in a couple songs but especially in some parts of this song.

7.Northern Belle- Northern Belle is a great rock song about the end of summer, it has a mix of rock organ, electric geetar and tambourine on the chorus.

8.Stand and Deliver- Stand and Deliver is another great fast rock song with a catchy " Do do do do do" in a few parts of the song. Allot of tension and release in this song, which makes it great. Overall good song.

9.Laser Guided Love- Laser Guided Love starts out with a long heavy synth-electric noise that breaks into a great guitar riff. Great chorus. This is a good example of a mix between "When the Angels Make Contact" and self titled album "Matt May & El Torpedo"

10.the Hunter, the Hunted- The Hunter, The Hunted is a dark song with almost an eary tone, with a soft chorus that starts to get a little faster and darker. Great pre-chorus.

11.Long Since gone- Long Since Gone is a great ending song, it is slow and emotional, with some strage lyrics, "President Bush is dead"? Nice song with a good chorus.



There you have it complete overview of the Album, I strongly recommend that you buy it, along with the related Albums that i mentioned. They've done it again! Great Job MM&ET!



-Brendan

The Name

So.. you may be wondering "Grant, Brendan, what the hell is up with the Name?" if you were wondering that... you are incredibly rude. But fo real, the name "Crazy Chester, and the Old Fashioned Sugar" derives from two sources;
First is: "Crazy Chester" is a character often used in songs by THE BAND specifically a verse sung in The Weight by a great man by the name of "Rick Danko" (you'll hear us talk about him)
Second part is: "Old Fashioned Sugar" There really isn't much to this part, Grant and I were at Tim Horton's one day and notice the doughnut shelf was almost bare except for the lonely shelf with "Old fashioned Sugar" doughnuts. This sparked a conversation, "no body eats the Old fashioned Sugar doughnuts, its like they are there just so you won't buy them and buy other flavours instead."
"That's sounds like a good band name" says Grant
And that is where we came up with it, Just to clear it up
-Brendan

Juggling

the other day I was sitting around my basement and I found three little hackey sacks. Thats when I remembered I could juggle. So I've been spending a lot of my time sitting around juggling trying to learn new tricks which led to a revelation, juggling is one of the best things I've ever learned. Why you ask? because there are a bunch of benefits from juggling. Now you're probably wondering what benefits could come from such a seemingly useless skill well let me lay 'em down for ya

-increased hand eye coordination (this can help in a lot of everyday activities .)
-Patience (When teaching yourself to juggle your gonna drop the balls a lot and theres no one to get angry at other than your self)
-Reflexes
-Ability to absorb information (As a juggler things seem to move a little slower cause I'm able to think quicker.)
-It's impressive (It's nothing thats gonna have women all over you but it entertains people.)

I had a few more but I forgot them all. Another pro to juggling is it's cheap if you don't already have three spherical objects that are roughly the same size and weight it's not to expensive to go pick up three tennis balls. It's also a great cure for boredom especially if you have a lot of time to do nothing I taught myself to juggle in about one day with three little bouncy balls I found. So if your like me and have a lot of time on your hands with nothing to do I recommend picking up some tennis balls and teaching yourself to juggle. It will test your patience at first but it'll be worth it in the end.
-Grant